Jacob M. Rothschild became rabbi of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (The Temple) in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1946. He could not have known then that his career would be distinguished by outspoken support of human rights, a synagogue bombing, and friendship with a Nobel laureate and his family. He could not have known that his support of human rights would help to make a hostile South more amenable to justice and decency in race relations, that the bombing of The Temple would indirectly hasten peaceful integration of the city's schools, and that his support of Martin Luther King, Jr. would bring about a landmark Atlanta dinner honoring King. He could not have known, and might never have believed, that on his death in 1973 an entire city would mourn.
Rabbi Rothschild stood up and spoke up for what he believed; his was a Judaism of the biblical prophets, a religion of “deed rather than creed,” of “right rather than rite.” In this intimate and carefully documented memoir, his wife-a leading historian of Southern Judaism-offers a warm account of his life as a rabbi and their life as a Jewish family in the South in a time of struggle.